Seal hunt waste of money

Richmond Hill Liberal

We are the one species that is the most wasteful, abusive and hurtful of our world, our home, to all life which sustains us. We are part of the environment - nature - we are not separate from it. We must have a greater consciousness than those who came before us. Our survival and that of all life, depends on it.

It is somewhat ironic that a federal election and the seal hunt should coincide, since both are a waste of money that the majority of Canadians don't want and both are designed to win more power for the politicians at the expense of taxpayers.

As candidates in the federal election publicly bash each other, Canada's harp seal population is taking a bashing, too. Both 2010 and 2011 saw the worst ice conditions on record in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, meaning the majority of harp seal pups, who need the ice to survive, perished.

Rather than offer protection against the ice-melting effects of climate change, the Harper government has marked the not-so-lucky surviving pups for death with a record-setting quota of 400,000.

In an election when budgets and responsible spending are priorities, politicians would be wise to do some math on the seal hunt. Tens of millions of our hard-earned tax dollars are wasted on support for the sealing industry, when the hunt itself brought in just over $1 million last year. Even those who ignore the fact that the seal hunt is cruel cannot deny that it makes no economic sense.

Canada needs more MPs who will speak out against this cruel and unnecessary waste of our tax dollars. It's time to let our politicians know that the commercial seal hunt should end.